First time on the Deep Web? Seasoned professional? Oh, so many possibilities, so many marketplaces to visit, items to browse and purchase… But whom to trust in this vast sea of fraudsters? And how to make an educated decision?

The issue of whether Nucleus Market has the makings of an exit scam has been the point of debate on forums based on darknet markets. The fact that the market has experienced several outages that are blamed on hackers’ activities is a point of concern. Nucleus Market recently came back online on December 17, 2015 after what they call server maintenance.

It seems as though this is the season for darknet markets to exit. In the past, the darknet markets used to wait till they reached either a certain size or amassed a certain amount of cryptocurrency Bitcoins. Then they would pull the plug and disappear with users’ money. In the recent times, darknet markets have been scamming users soon after they make the first deposit or after managing to create a little bit of popularity.

Law enforcement officials from Australia, Europe and US met last month in Netherlands to plan a global crackdown on darknet markets that deal in illicit goods, from drugs to child pornography. This two day conference held in Hague aimed at organizing an international action against this illicit trade. Man with a LaptopThe project named ITOM (Illegal Trade in Online Marketplaces) started two years ago with the support of Europol, which is Europe’s police organization and Eurojust, which is the EU’s judicial agency.

The rise of fake pharmaceutical drugs around the world is alarming and is a great danger especially to those who consume these drugs. Due to this, pharmaceutical companies are trying to do their best to ensure people do not use these fake drugs which could harm their health further.

Facebook is undoubtedly the biggest social media platform today, making it among other things, a target for hackers on darknet markets. Stolen data are a popular buy on various darknet markets for criminals looking for new identities to hide their clear web activities.

Two Irishmen, a bitcoin trader and a film technician, have pleaded guilty for darknet markets related drug charges. The pair had been selling drugs on the darknet markets, Silk Road and Agora and was in possession of €143,000 worth of illegal drugs at a raid conducted by the gardai (the police force of Ireland) in south Dublin in October 2014.

OpenBazaar CEO Brian Hoffman recently revealed that the upcoming version of the open source project would be able to connect through Tor network. This came after one of their back-end developers, Chris Pacia, successfully upgraded the OpenBazaar protocol on a pre-release update.

Darknet markets are the tech-savvy drug dealers’ perfect environment for doing business in. The online marketplaces akin to an eBay for illegal products, accessible only via Tor and trading using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, provide a shield protecting them from relative traceability.

While users are still reeling over the possible recent exit scam performed by the Oasis Market, Monero appears to be the biggest loser as it has lost not only its chance at setting a strong foothold in the world of darknet markets, but also any traction it had gained.

The defunct xDedic marketplace has resurfaced on a Tor domain. However, this time round, there is a USD 50 enrollment fee. Their original domain had disappeared last month after a Kaspersky security report was published.

Five months after the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s defense team launched an appeal for conducting a new trial, the prosecution has refuted each of their arguments in an attempt to seal off his fate, according to report.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation closed down Silk Road, one of the first among darknet markets, in 2013 and people thought that it marked the end of sale of illegal products through the Internet. Contrary to their expectations, the vacuum created by the closure of Silk Road has been filled up more than 50 darknet markets over the last couple of years.

When the most recent photos released by drug vendors from darknet markets captured the eye of the public, many were certain that there would be repercussions for the seemingly careless acts of defiance disguised as product advertising.

TheRealDeal Market is a dark web marketplace, and it specializes in computer exploits and selling stolen data. The online black market became famous for wrong reasons this year following its involvement in the sale of data from a number of massive data breaches, which includes data from Myspace and LinkedIn.

According to reports, Tomáš Jiřikovský purported to be the owner of Sheep Marketplace, faces additional charges related to stealing bitcoins worth millions of dollars from the users of the site. When he was arrested in March last year, law enforcement officials were planning to charge him for dealing in drugs.

In June 2016, a security alert was issued by the uTorrent team in which they strongly advised the members of the forum to practice good personal security practices and modify their passwords following a breach of their database.

Former federal agents Shaun W. Bridges and Carl M. Force got charged with fraud, money laundering and a few more related offenses after it was discovered that they stole bitcoins when investigating events at the underground black market called Silk Road.

Earlier last month, Brian Farrell admitted in a Washington District Court to being DoctorClu, a key player in the darknet site Silk Road 2.0. The original Silk Road was closed by the FBI in the year 2013.

The Silk Road case has reached a turning point after the defense attorneys for Ross Ulbricht claimed that they have substantial evidence incriminating a third rogue cop involved in the operations of the now defunct darknet market.

The court convicted Ross Ulbricht for creating and running Silk Road - a dark web market site. The court subsequently handed him a life sentence without parole. The defense team for Ulbricht has filed a reply brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals demanding that Ulbricht should be granted a new trial in a different district judge.

Tristan Simpson Brennand was first arrested last December after police in Washington intercepted several packages containing MDMA and Xanax, which were later traced to him. After being released on bond for the better part of two years, he was imprisoned once more and this time, sentenced to serve four years in prison for trafficking and distribution of illicit drugs.

Recently, Monero Market went offline. The Monero Market is a dark net marketplace where transactions are conducted exclusively through Monero (XMR). Fortunately, Monero Market is set to return in January, 2017 according to its representatives. Monero is an open source crypto currency that was officially unveiled on 18 April 2014 as BitMonero.

Dark Web News is a publication dedicated to bringing the latest news about TOR, hidden marketplaces, and everything related to the dark web. We work hard to find and report on the most exciting and relevant dark net news. We also offer help and advice on using the dark net safely and securely.